


Appearances

by double_negative



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, End of the World, Everyone is Dead, Gen, Headcanon, Zacharie's face, after the ending - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 12:43:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10021283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/double_negative/pseuds/double_negative
Summary: you wonder, how does the end of the world looks like?what does anything look like?





	

**Author's Note:**

> it's 2012 here again.

You didn't really know what you expected. Well, it certainly wasn't this. As you stood above the ragged bloody corpse of a cat who smiled even in death, just before you pull the switch, you find yourself thinking, even if just for a moment, before the need to purify overwhelms you again. "What does the end of the world actually looks like?".

You would expect a loud bang and then - blackness. You would expect to cease to exist the very second it happens.

It's actually white. White as far as your eye can see, pure, so pure, but so empty it feels claustrophobic. And the sound is not a bang, it's a snap. Almost like a string that's been pulled so tight it frayed little by little and finally broke. A snap and then another one and deafening silence afterwards. You try to scream, but there's no air, not even smoke, so your lungs are empty. You can't even hear your breathing, but at the same time you wonder, were you actually breathing before? You never took time to notice it.

And the most surprising change is within you. Your whole body goes slack, shoulders slumping, your bat slipping from your fingers and you're so taken aback, you don't even think to pick it up despite clutching to it even in your sleep the last several days. Even the tightness in your clenched jaw dissipates and you realise just how much tension you've held in your body. But of course. You had a mission, a holy mission, you never had time to relax, you never even had the thought to take a break. What _have_ you thought of before? Have you at all? You are not sure.

It feels like you've been restrained before and now you're free. Like you've been controlled, played with, fed information your whole existence and you never even realised it before it was gone. The urge to go forward, to perservere, to purify, it's all gone. You are free. But there's no one to share it with. Nowhere to go.

Your bat is floating beside you, because there's no ground for it to drop onto. Nothing. Nothing but you.

It feels like an eternity. Maybe it's been just a couple of minutes, but maybe several years passed by. You don't know if time exist after the world is over. You don't care. Your thoughts are running wild, what did you do, what the hell have you done? Is this... emotions? Regret? Fear? You are not sure, but you don't like it. At all. You feel yearning for something, anything, even for that incessant voice inside your head to come back and take control again. Something, anything, anyone. You open your mouth again and nothing comes out. You try to shut it all away, clenching your eyes shut, but even behind your eyelids, there's no calming blackness, there's no rest, only the pure white, a reminder of what you've been doing all this time.

You cover your eyes with your palms, rubbing at them, and it's the same bright nothingness behind those. Maybe you've gone blind? But you can still see your hands as you tear them away from your face. Your skin, so unnaturally light, without a single wrinkle or line visible in the harsh lightness of this dead world. Only barely visible markings and bumps of calluses on your fingers, a result of handling your bat for so long, like a stain on pure whiteness, the onlu trophy you got for completing your mission.

You stare and stare, straining your eyes and after what seems like another eternity, you notice a dot. A smallest black dot so far away you're not sure it's real. Maybe you've gone insane. Maybe your mind is playing tricks on you, but as you wrack your brain for answers, the dot is growing bigger. It's a person, a figure, you realise and they're walking. Walking towards you. It's menacing, but anything is better then nothing. Still, you shut your eyes, trembling. letting the figure disappear in whiteness behind your eyelids. You can almost hear approaching footsteps and it terrifies you, because before when you tried to make any noise it just wouldn't come out.

"Fancy seeing you here, _mon caneton_."

The voice is so familiar and comforting, your eyes fly open. Surely enough, it's Zacharie. In the flesh, standing before you, that stupid cat mask grinning at you cheerfully like nothing happened. You struggle to form words, flapping your mouth in the absense of air.

"Now-now, Batter. Relax. Just because there's no air, doesn't mean you can't talk to me and say how much you missed your dear friend. Just... try to do it like you always did."

His words make no sense, but then again, he's talking to you. You're sure he is, because if it was a figment of your imagination, you couldn't have created such a perfect, such an infuriating copy. So you puff your chest out, like you took a gulp of air and force it out, deflating. Again and again, until you feel like you at least look like you're breathing. Zacharie is wating patiently for you and with that mask on, you're not even sure he's looking your way, but once you start doing better, he chuckles, with that same melodic laugh of his, but in this quiet it sounds almost menacing. You try to push that thought away, because you never realised how scary the smaller man could be before. You never had the need to. But here he is, existing after you singlehandedly destroyed the entire world. Talking to you, calling you stupid names, laughing at you. Like nothing has ever happened to him.

"You look so much better. Can you speak at all now?"

You try to remember how you would form words before and finally there's a sound out of your mouth, more of a croak than a word. "Yes."

Zacharie gives you a little applause and an encouraging nod. "So much better! You're a fast learner! Now let's get you standing."

You don't even realise you're floating by now. There's no ground, nothing at all to use for purchase, but Zacharie grabs at your feet, tugging you to his level and firmly plants them on the... on the what? You don't know. But you attempt to feel it and there it is. Something firm. Not entirely solid, but good enough to stand. Maybe it's all about perspective after all. You jump up and down a couple of times and you don't seem to be falling through or floating off, you just land safely. It's a relief.

"Sure, you could have flown here, but you don't have any wings to guide you. It's all about habits and practice, amigo."

he sounds like he's smiling behind that mask too.

"Why?", you croak out again, sounding much more sure in your voice now. Habit and practice, you repeat in your head, habit and practice. Just like holding a bat. Or... maybe not... that.

"Why what? Do you have any questions, _mon cher ami_? You must be dying for answers."

You're not really sure why you asked that. You were never the one to question or ask anything. And what is there to ask? "How are you still alive?" "Why am I still alive?" "What are we doing here?" it all sounds so stupid in your head, so you just shake your head slightly.

"Nothing."

Zacharie chuckles again. "It sure is nothing. But. I have to show you _something_!"

Is there anything here? Really? The thought of that excites you and makes you sad at the same time. If there is, it's not pure after all. Not pure at all. But do you even need to purify still? Once that presence in your head is gone you don't feel like you have to. Maybe you can be free now. maybe you'll even understand what that word means in the end. But what if it comes back? Comes back to wipe what's left away? This white planes, the something Zacharie wants to show you? Zacharie himself? Even you?

Your head starts to hurt from all this thinking and Zacharie grabs you again, this time by your arm. "Come on, _mon batteur_ ". His hand is surprisingly small, like his whole frame and it's softer than yours, devoid of the calouses. The only roughness in them is the assortment of small scars, so faded and tiny they look more like papercuts. It's warm too. "Aren't you going to pick it up?", Zacharie points towards your bat, still floating in the nothingness at your side, seemingly stuck in it. You shake your head, "no". You doubt you would want to pick that up ever again. Zacharie laughs sheepishly, "I guess you don't need _that_ anymore. Good", and starts walking. You follow suit, trying to keep your pace up. You don't want to let his hand go and he doesn't make you.

You walk and you walk. Your steps softly echoing in otherwise silence. You struggle to see anything worth your attention, anything that Zacharie could be leading you to. You walk and you walk and at some point you start counting your steps, but you give up after the numbers get too big. It must be far away. And there a thought pops up in your head. Something you never dared to think of. You look at Zacharie. At porcelain white of his mask and his dark hair sticking out in every direction and you can't help but stop in place.

"Actually, I have a question", your voice is still so small, so pathetic. You can almost hear it breaking in places, nothing like before.

Zacharie stops and turns to you. "What is it, amigo?"

And there it is. The question you never thought of asking before. You had no need to. You never had any interest in anything but your mission.

"What do I look like?"

It must sound so pathetic. You have a general idea, but that's it. Then again, creatures you encountered, if you remember correctly, had very different opinons on your appearance. Some took you as one of their own and some were downright terrified. And you don't recall ever seeing a mirror, or at least bothered to look in one. You were occupied with other things. And now... there's only Zacharie to see you. He never said anything to you, even when you came up to him covered in blood and ash. He never seemed scared or disgusted by your face, but he never commented on that either.

Zacharie almost doubles over when he laughs this time. He really must find this ridiculous and you immidiately regret asking. When he stops, his answer sounds more serious when you've ever heard the merchant sound, "Oh. You look more human than anyone I've ever met." Human? What does that actually mean? It seems like Zacharie catches on to your confusion and continues, "But you're not particularly attractive..."

You feel like strangling him. It's a new feeling too and you don't even sure what this searing hotness inside you is. Anger? Annoyance? Resentment? Disappointment?

"Don't you...", you sound so harsh you actually scare yourself into stopping midsentence. Zacharie doesn't seem surprised by that at all, he just rubs at his temple behind the mask, "Ha-ha, sorry, mon cher. I guess you just look like any other human to me."

He takes steps towards you, until he's almost too close and brings his fingers towards your face. "Can I?", not really touching it, he asks for your permission. You nod. His fingers are so much softer and warmer against your skin there as he traces you features, recounting them while he does that. It would have been embarassing if you weren't so entranced by his movement and quiet voice.

"You have a strong jawline with no facial hair to speak of. Your lips are thin and you always look like you're straining or frowning. Your nose is rather long and pointy, that would probably be my favourite feature of yours. You have prominent cheekbones and your eyes have a slant to them. They're also quite narrow, so at times I can't really tell if you have them open or closed. But the color of your irises is striking. It's blood red. Your brows are thick and dark, but your hair is very light and short. Is that a satisfactory response?"

When he takes his hands away from you, you already feel like you miss the touch. "Yes". You try to imagine all he told you in your head, form a complete picture from the description and the sensation in your skin where you were touched, but it just doesn't work. You barely have any frame of reference. You've never seen many humans to compare what you've heard from Zacharie to your memory. You just feel... angry at yourself. Zacharie tried his best and you can't even use his response for anything. So you will never really know. You wince at the realisation and attempt to continue walking, but it seems like Zacharie doesn't move. Worse, it looks like he's still staring directly at you. Waiting for something.

"Wouldn't you ask about how I look?", he _is_ waiting. He's still close and you can almost see his eyes glint behind the black cut-outs of his mask. When he wore a different one, you remember, you were able to actually see those eyes. But what did they look like? You always assumed his face was his mask, never questioning what's behind it. So you tell him the truth. "Like you would ever tell me".

And to your complete surprise, Zacharie reaches for the strings of his mask, tugging them loose. If you were breathing, your breath would have caught in your throat. When he actually starts pulling his mask off, you can't help but shut your eyes in denial. Zacharie's chuckle at that makes your guts wrench and it's something completely new too. "Now it's not the time to be scared, amigo". You never imagined what's he would look like at all. You don't really want to see it, you realise. What if it's something wrong? Something scary? Something impure? Before, when you encountered uglyness, you would just erase it from existence with your bat. Would you do that now if you don't like what you see?

But you steel yourself and slowly open your eyes. After all the buildup and secrecy his face looks... surprisingly normal. Save for two large scars on his cheeks, he looks... average. Human. His hair is all messed up and even more tangled than before and he has unevenly cut bangs that cover his eyebrows. His eyes are large and dull, with dark irises almost indistinguishable from his pupils and puffy grayish eyebags under them. He's smiling at you, that smile  and the two scars making his face look similar to the frog mask he was wearing before, "Pretty anticlimatic, don't you think, mon ami?"

You don't understand in the slightest. You wanted to see how you look and were afraid of turning out to be some monstrosity and he's covering his perfectly normal face...

"Secrets are worth more than currency, dear Batter", he says, while stashing the mask he's holding in his backpack. That's as good of an explanation that you will ever get, you realise.

"Don't you need it?", you point towards the mask and Zacharie just smiles wistfully and you realise you're glad you can see his expression.

"I wouldn't need it where we're going."

He avoids your stare. He almost seems vulnerable like that. When the enigmatic mask is dropped, he's just another human being. And when you study his face closely, you realise.

"You don't actually know where we're going." It's not a question, it's a statement. Of course. There's nothing left. Nothing but you and him. And he is a sneaky who lead you on and gave you false hope.

"Acta est fabula. Plaudite", he smiles at you sheepishly and all the anger is immidiately gone. Of course. He lied to you, but right now he looks more like he's lying to himself. Trying to convince himself there's still a point. Absolutely miserable, avoiding your eyes and gnawing at his bottom lip. So it's your turn to grab his hand and pull him forward.

You start walking again. You walk and you walk and you walk, clutching Zacharie's hand tighter than you ever did your bat. You will arrive at some point. You will find something. If you have him, someone else might have survived. You just won't know if you don't search for them.

So you keep walking.

**Author's Note:**

> mon caneton - my duckie  
> mon cher ami - my dear friend  
> mon batteur - my batter (obv)  
> "acta est fabula. plaudite" is latin for "the play is over, applaude"
> 
> I know Batter is not human, but Zacharie says he looks like one so trust him if you want to.  
> I also know this fic is kind of shit and in my head it was so much better... but what do you do.


End file.
